Newcomers but also some already known names can be found among the Romanian candidates of Selecția Națională! As expected, the broadcaster TVR disclosed the 24 shortlisted acts that are going to fight for Romania’s ticket to Eurovision.

Unlike in previous years, Romania’s national selection event will be consisting of only two semi-finals, each taking part in different cities in the country, these being Arad and Iași, on 20 and 27 January respectively. The event’s Grand Final is scheduled to be held in February in the country’s capital Bucharest.

A total of 126 songs were submitted to the broadcaster, which were subsequently evaluated by a selection panel. The committee chose the following:

2 Gents – Ielele

Aldo Blaga – Your journey

Berniceya – The call

Claudiu Mirea – We are the ones

Dan Bittman – Pierd

Dya & Lucian Colareza – Without you (Sin ti)

Echoes – High heels on

Ester Peony – On a Sunday

Georgy – Tears

Johnny Badulescu – Give up now

Laura Bretan – Dear father

Letitia Moisescu & Sensibil Balkan – Daina

M I H A I – Baya (Speechless)

Nicola – Weight of the world

Olivier Kaye – Right now

Ommieh x Anakrisez – Rock this way

Steam – The way it goes

Teodora Dinu – Skyscraper

The four – The song of my heart

Trooper – Destin

TWM – Make me your man

Vaida – Underground

Xandra – Independent

Xonia – Discrete

Perhaps the most well-known of the participants is M I H A I, who has already represented his country on the Eurovision stage, in 2006. In Athens, he gave Romania one of its best results in the contest, as he ended up 4th with Tornero. M I H A I has tried to defend Romania’s colours several times before and after his 2006 participation and has been continuously competing every year since 2016.

Moreover, Xandra is not new to the contest, since she has also been counting 3 participations in a row, namely in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Do you think this time she’s going to realize her dream?

TVR is going to reveal more details on the songs’ allocation in the two semi-finals in due time.

Romania at Eurovision

Romania saw their first Eurovision participation back in 1994 in Dublin, with Dan Bittman and the song Dincolo de nori. Since then, the country has experienced mixed fortunes in the contest, with 6 Top 10 placings. Their best result to date is two 3rd places, achieved in 2005 and in 2010.

Until Lisbon’s Eurovision edition, Romania was one of the 4 countries to have never been eliminated in the semi-finals. However, this changed in May, as the winners of Selecţia Naţionala 2018, band The Humans with the song Goodbye, ended up 11th in the second semi-final, thus failing to qualify to the grand final of the competition.

Here’s their live performance on the stage of Altice Arena:

The 64th Eurovision Song Contest will be taking place on 14, 16 and 18 May at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. The event will be produced by the Israeli public broadcaster KAN and the EBU.

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